The Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) said Wednesday people in Trinidad and Tobago owe the BIR as much as $13.7 billion.
Deokie Hosein was speaking at a tax amnesty seminar in Port of Spain. She said the amount is a combination of about $4.7 billion in arrears. The rest is penalties and interest charges on the outstanding debt.
She explained that one of the reasons for the outstanding arrears was the "archaic information system" at the department, which has now been fixed.
“The BIR has not been able to inform everyone of their liabilities as a result of the old data processing system,” she said.
“We have implemented a new automated tax system. We have one system doing everything now," she said. "Once we pull up your BIR number, all your information comes up and we can inform all people.”
In the 2011 budget, the Government granted a tax amnesty for tax penalties and interest for late filing of returns and late payment of income tax, corporation tax, VAT, the business levy and land and building taxes. The offer is to waive penalties and interest on outstanding taxes that are paid by May 31, 2011.
VAT payments made after the deadline will include a late payment penalty of eight per cent and interest of two per cent a month. The penalty for other taxes will be 20 per cent per annum.
Government Senator Patrick Watson, who is an adviser at the Finance Ministry, said now is the time to pay up. “We want to encourage people in a nice way to pay up because there is not going to be another tax amnesty," he said. "I’m assuring you of that.”
He added, “The next time around it will not be nice and there is a legal requirement to pay these taxes and the State could take legal action against you for not paying taxes.”
Watson said if people pay their taxes the projected $7.7 billion deficit this year would be reduced significantly. “If we collect the $13 billion, we will actually run a budget surplus although we don’t really expect that to happen and most of that is in the form of penalties, anyway.”
Deokie Hosein was speaking at a tax amnesty seminar in Port of Spain. She said the amount is a combination of about $4.7 billion in arrears. The rest is penalties and interest charges on the outstanding debt.
She explained that one of the reasons for the outstanding arrears was the "archaic information system" at the department, which has now been fixed.
“The BIR has not been able to inform everyone of their liabilities as a result of the old data processing system,” she said.
“We have implemented a new automated tax system. We have one system doing everything now," she said. "Once we pull up your BIR number, all your information comes up and we can inform all people.”
In the 2011 budget, the Government granted a tax amnesty for tax penalties and interest for late filing of returns and late payment of income tax, corporation tax, VAT, the business levy and land and building taxes. The offer is to waive penalties and interest on outstanding taxes that are paid by May 31, 2011.
VAT payments made after the deadline will include a late payment penalty of eight per cent and interest of two per cent a month. The penalty for other taxes will be 20 per cent per annum.
Government Senator Patrick Watson, who is an adviser at the Finance Ministry, said now is the time to pay up. “We want to encourage people in a nice way to pay up because there is not going to be another tax amnesty," he said. "I’m assuring you of that.”
He added, “The next time around it will not be nice and there is a legal requirement to pay these taxes and the State could take legal action against you for not paying taxes.”
Watson said if people pay their taxes the projected $7.7 billion deficit this year would be reduced significantly. “If we collect the $13 billion, we will actually run a budget surplus although we don’t really expect that to happen and most of that is in the form of penalties, anyway.”
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